Alameel for Senate

This runoff leaves Democratic Party voters in Texas with an easy choice.

Copyright 2014: Houston Chronicle

Updated 9:25 am, Friday, April 25, 2014

Photo: HOEP

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In this undated photo provided by his campaign is David Alameel, a U.S. Senate candidate in Texas' Democratic primary runoff.

In this undated photo provided by his campaign is David Alameel, a U.S. Senate candidate in Texas' Democratic primary runoff.

Photo: HOEP

Alameel for Senate

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It would be easy enough to endorse David Alameel by process of elimination. His opponent in the Democratic Party primary runoff for U.S. Senate is not really a Democrat. A conspiracy theorist and acolyte of longtime political sideshow Lyndon LaRouche, Kesha Rogers throws around terms like "fascist" and "genocidal" when talking about Medicaid. She believes that President Barack Obama should be impeached for cancelling the NASA Constellation program. And her website features a prominent photo of Obama with a Hitler mustache. No surprise that the statewide Democratic Party has utterly disavowed her as a candidate.

Yet Alameel does not have to rely on contrasts to stand out as an impressive candidate. A Lebanese immigrant who worked his way up from farm labor to joining the army and becoming a millionaire dental magnate, Alameel's story is one of the American dream.

Alameel's focus on the issues isn't that different from what voters would expect from most moderate Democratic candidates: education, immigration and a declining middle class. But he speaks with an authority that stems from his life story.

While other politicians may debate immigration with talking points, Alameel has the experience as a father who married into an Hispanic family.

He has witnessed first-hand citizens harassed by border patrol, grandmothers separated from their children and businesses that need hardworking laborers.

These are the stories that Texas needs to hear, but all too often they're drowned out by "invasion" rhetoric that only fans the flames of hate. It is the same rhetoric that politicians used to lambast Irish and Italian immigrants in our nation's earlier days.

With campaign funds to spare, Alameel should have no trouble running a statewide campaign and leave the donors open for downballot candidates. Whether from a pragmatic or an idealistic perspective, Alameel is the right choice for Democratic Party voters in this primary runoff.